Tuesday, October 07, 2008

Nairn Politics small-minded?

'There’s a weird small-mindedness in the town that suggests that Nairn’s roots are as a retirement village, and therefore it should stay that way and to hell with the young families that live here.' Says Brian

Lots of other stuff on MyNairn this week, picking up the slack in the Nairn Blogosphere is Brian.Nairn is different yes, not without problems we like to Gurn about but it is Disneyland compared to many less fortunate places on Mother Earth, and if it seems weird and small minded, who cares? Let's be weird and small-minded big time! Tilda loves it anyway :-)

11 comments:

The link doesn't work. My various comments on your blog, and my occasional articles in my own blog (when I can be bothered to write about Nairn) certainly - I hope - convey my view that Nairn can indeed be a small-minded place, backward-looking and short-sighted. I look forward to being able to visit this blog you refer to to read what he has got to say about it.

While I agree with some of the observations from the MyNairn article about the 'small minded Nairn politics', it should also be accepted that we are often held hostage to higher beings (the Highland Council officials)who think they know what is best for us! People should read the article before jumping on the idea that the whole of Nairn is small-minded place, backward-looking and short-sighted. As I've said before if people have this impression of Nairn why do they stay here?

Hi Graisg, I'm afraid that link still does not work - I keep getting an 'address not found' error message.

As for Spelding's comment:As I've said before if people have this impression of Nairn why do they stay here?- frankly I stay here because I wish to; this is not some kind of Stalinist autocracy; it is pathetic to make the kind of comment that people who wish to criticise something here should better leave if they don't like it! And I reserve the right to point out small-minded attitudes such as your attempt to close down debate when someone dares to point out something you do not wish to hear.

It so happens I'm a 'native' of Inverness, that's to say I was born there, but for family reasons I spent no part of my childhood there, and I've had people in Inverness who regard me as an outsider (basically because my accent is different) feed me the same line; it's just as ridiculous.

There must be something very strange going on; I've put My Nairn in the Google search box as you suggest and the mynairn.com comes right at the top of the search list, with a few of the articles linked to directly following this. They all return the 'address not found' error message. Maybe you are still seeing in your internet cache?

looking at it in a machine in another location Bill. Still got that redundant laptop nearby Bill? Fire it up and see if it shows.

Here's' the text of Brian's post anyway:

Small Minded Nairn PoliticsOctober 6, 2008 · Filed Under Nairn There’s a weird small-mindedness in the town that suggests that Nairn’s roots are as a retirement village, and therefore it should stay that way and to hell with the young families that live here.

A strong group on the political scene are still hanging onto the idea that the Co-op will suddenly rush out and spend money on a big new town centre supermarket over the present Somerfield - despite the fact it’ll take Co-op a few years to merge the companies, plus there’s a massive crunch on which means it’s harder for any commercial business to borrow money for daily operations, let alone non-essential expansion.

Meanwhile, Pettifer’s Sinabury’s plan to give Nairn folk a proper local supermarket is being treated as leprosy, councillors remain backwrd looking, the Highland Council thinks the only place worthy of attention around the Moray Firth is Inverness - and the Scottish Government seems to think little of the Highlands because of the dearth of voters by comparison to the Central Belt.

We really need a Nairn that’s happy to move into the 21st century, and embrace that future.

But so far, the politics of the town suggests the pensioners are in charge and they are going to outlaw anything kind of change to Nairn they aren’t getting a back-hander for.

Frustrating, but maybe time I tried to get involved with local politics. That would be fun. Now all I need to do is learn how. :)

And then do my part to drag Nairn kicking and screaming into the 21st century

I don't know what "Brian" means by "backhander". I hope he means that Nairn may get incentives such as improved roads or enhanced green areas that come "free" with development. However, if he knows that the worthies of Nairn get personal incentives to back particular schemes, the he should make sure that that we all know.